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Salad

Cream Cheese Salad with Currants

A chilled salad of cream cheese mixed with whipped cream, topped with Bar‑le‑duc currants and stuffed olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and cream cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,087 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Cheese Salad with Currants

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the cream cheese with a fork until light and smooth.

  2. Whip 3 tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth.

  3. Mix the cream cheese and whipped cream together lightly.

Serve

  1. Pile the mixture on a plate.

  2. Just before serving pour a glassful of Bar-le-duc red currants over the mixture.

  3. Around the edge of the plate place stuffed olives of different varieties and serve with reception wafers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

212Calories
3 gProtein
16 gFat
18 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream Cheese1 oz (28g)99
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + cream cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Currant + cream cheesetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Currant + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese
Provides the rich, smooth body that forms the base of the salad.
Cream
Whipped to a stiff froth, it adds air and lightness to the mixture.
Currants
Add tart, sweet fruit flavour and bright colour over the cream cheese.

The step that matters

Whipping the cream to a stiff froth. Cream must be whipped until it holds firm peaks but not beyond, since overwhipping makes it grainy and separated. Gently folding it into the cream cheese keeps the air trapped, so the mixture stays light rather than dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cream cheese):

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cream cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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